The Good News Network reports that Bonnie Fay, an 84-year-old pianist, is now playing regularly at Bryn Mawr Village, the Pennsylvania nursing home where she was once a patient.

Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare disorder in which the immune system attacks the body's own nerves, had left her paralyzed, and she arrived at the facility facing a long and uncertain recovery. In those difficult weeks, she told the outlet that the piano lifted her spirits tremendously.

"I came here as a patient, and now I can give something back," Fay said.

According to Good News Network, somewhere along the way Fay made herself a promise: someday she would come back and play there.

It was not the first time the home had carried her through hardship; the outlet reports she had been a patient twice, the first time after a series of about seven orthopedic surgeries.

"Bryn Mawr Village helped me through some very hard times, and I never forgot that," she said, adding that the home arranged to pick her up and bring her back to play. Outstandng medical issues kept her away from the piano for around 10 months before her return.

The Good News Network describes residents pulling their chairs close to listen and lingering afterward to talk; some have become Fay's friends, calling to chat about music and life.

Charles Light of Bryn Mawr Village told the outlet that Fay is the person residents look forward to seeing, and that during her 10-month absence people kept asking when she was coming back. "That tells you what she means to this place," he said.

Fay, who began studying piano at age 7 and taught for years in students' homes, once leaned on that same piano in her own recovery; now she plays it for people in theirs.

Stories like Fay's show why the telling matters as much as the deed.

In a Fortune commentary on the NFL's Jay-Z Super Bowl leak, PR veteran Rick Pendrick argues that "when good news leaks, whoever speaks first sets the frame" — a point that applies to heartwarming recoveries too, since the person who shares the story controls the warmth it carries.

The Good News Network, which reported Fay's story and invited readers to share it, credits her lifelong talent spreading joy where it is needed.

Her next appearances are simply more of the same: regular sessions at the Bryn Mawr Village piano for residents recovering from illness, surgery and injury.